The present invention relates to a camera for automatically performing a release operation in accordance with the sound pressure level of every input sound to the camera, including a voice, laughter, a clap, and other sounds.
There are a lot of occasions where photographs are taken as in banquets and parties. It is not so easy for a person serving as a photographer to take photographs during a banquet, and besides, the photographer cannot have his/her photographs taken during photography. Therefore, it is a great convenience to have a camera which can automatically determine a shutter chance and perform a release operation.
If such a camera is available, all the participants including a person serving as a photographer can enjoy a banquet or a party. Such a type of camera has not been developed yet.
If the shutter is released at a jovial moment in a banquet or a party by using such a camera, a good photograph can be taken. Therefore, a camera may be designed to perform a release operation upon detection of, e.g., laughter, a cheer, a clap, and applause at a jovial moment in a banquet. Since a known conventional speech recognition camera can respond to only a specific speech, it cannot detect such sounds as described above which are generated at a jovial moment. Consequently, the conventional camera cannot automatically perform a release operation upon detection of such sounds.
According to another conventional camera which has been proposed, when the magnitude of an input sound exceeds a predetermined reference level, a release operation is performed by using the input sound as a trigger signal. Such a camera, however, releases the shutter in response to, e.g., a sound generated when a door is shut, a cough, and a sneeze. Therefore, such a camera cannot properly determine shutter chances, and takes a lot of wasteful photographs.
Even if a camera which is designed to automatically perform a release operation is used, a user is still required to perform framing. If photography is continuously performed with the same framing while the camera is placed on a tripod or a table, several tens of photographs having the same composition are taken. In the middle of a banquet or a party, a user tends to forget to change the framing, and besides, such an operation is a nuisance to the user. If such a change in framing can be automatically performed, it will provide a great convenience. However, any proposal for such automatic framing has not been offered yet.
Such a problem is posed not only in the above-described automatic release camera but also in other cameras such as cameras for performing a release operation by means of a remote controller and cameras for controlling a release operation by using various types of sensors (infrared sensors, temperature sensors, and the like).
It is a principal object of the present invention to provide a camera for automatically performing a release operation at a banquet or a party.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a camera which can automatically change a framing.